May 28, 2011

Update: Minnesota’s vote to ask its population to amend the state constitution preventing same-sex marriage elicited the following from the White House: “The President has long opposed divisive and discriminatory efforts to deny rights and benefits to same sex couples or to take such rights away. While he believes this is an issue best addressed by the states, he also believes that committed gay couples should have the same rights and responsibilities afforded to any married couple in this country.” The Minnesota Family Council has also tried to scrub its website clean of the most vicious accusations about LGBT people, but these attacks can be found elsewhere on the Internet if your stomach is up to it.

Update: Wisconsin’s Gov. Scott Walker has just signed the most restrictive photo ID law in the nation, effective immediately to be in force for the recall elections of Republicans this July or August. Although a photo ID won’t be required until 2012, the necessity for voters to have lived at their address at the time of voting for 28 days instead of ten days goes into effect immediately. One of the other requirements is that Wisconsin absentee voters mail a photocopy of their ID when they submit their ballots. Opponents may challenge the constitutionality of the law, but it is uncertain whether this would happen before the summer election. Walker and the Republican legislators are working very hard to get all the negative bills passed before the election, especially after a judge declared that they broke the law when they rushed through the anti-union bill.

Update: Those of you who felt relief that the rapture did not occur a week ago may want to get uptight again. Harold Camping, the person who asserted that the rapture would come on May 21, 2011, has now admitted that he is wrong: the definitive date is October 21, 2011. Prepare yourself! (The website announcing this is also incorrect about the spelling of “judgment.”)

Update: One Michigan school superintendent is so fed up with the state budget cuts in his state that he suggested students become prisoners to get more benefits—meals, health insurance, computers, Internet access, library books, a weight room, etc. The state budget allocation for each prisoner is almost 500 percent more than for a child in school. Thank you, Nathan Bootz of Ithica (MI) for the information!